Rag Pickers in India

Sustainability of Human Rights with Special Reference to Child Rights: A Case Study of Rag Pickers in Cuttack City Abstract
Dillip Kumar MallikThe discourse on rights is evolving with time. The rights of the Rag Pickers as part of the broad rights discourse have assumed significance in contemporary times. My Ph.D research is located within the rights framework. Rag Pickers are those children we can find out them in railway station, municipality areas, bus stand, industries areas, garbage and household areas with having a heavy gunny bags and collected and sorted: plastic, paper, bottles, bones and metals. Diferent plans outlined by Government Agencies have rolled out government has taken lot of initiative for empowering the childhood. For example, policies like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the free mid-day meal programme and many others have been there for a long tyime. But the question is if they are successful, then why there is early drop out of students and more significantly, why children belonging to poor sections in urban areas have turned into rag pickers. The metro cities have the largest number of rag pickers in the country. It would be difficult to ascribe any particular caste or any other form of identities to these children. The central question of this research is whether Government policies are inadequate to respond the needs and requirements of this group of children. Along with this central question the study also looks at other related questions. Whether the rag pickers belong to marginalised groups? Do these rag pickers constitute a majority of school drop outs? The research revolves round these questions. Some of the key objectives of the research are 1) to study and understand the socio-economic condition of the rag pickers, Second is To know the impact of the rag pickers on the society, Third, to provide proper education as well as health awareness for the children. Fourth, to make assessment the changing behavioural pattern of the children...

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...CONTENT
INTRODUCTION: 3
RAG-PICKING 4
RAG-PICKERS: 5
PROBLEMS FACED BY RAGPICKERS 7
STATE OF THE LEGISLATION 8
NEEDS OF RAGPICKERS 9
GOVERNMENT’S INITIATIVE 10
PRIVATISATION OF WASTE 11
A CASE STUDY: DELHI,MUMBAI,KOLKATA,CHENNAI 12
ORGANISING THE UNORGANISED 13
CONCLUSION 15
REFERENCES 16
INTRODUCTION:
Over fifteen lakh individuals across India work as scrap and waste collectors, earning their livelihood from the collection and sale of paper, plastic, metal and glass scrap to recycling industries.
Among the most disadvantaged, vulnerable and underprivileged class in the urban labour market, occupying the lowest rung of the poverty groups, is the class of ragpickers. This dynamic but unregulated sector in the expanding economy depends directly on retrieving waste for their livelihood.
The word rag picking has no precise meaning. However, it has been defined as a refuse occupation, which can support people when they have no other opportunity for earning. More precisely, the rag or paper picker is defined as one ‘who makes his/her livelihood by picking up waste paper, plastic, rags, bottles, tins, metal pieces, discarded and broken containers from road side dustbins, streets, garbage heaps and sells them to nearby retailers....

...The Women Rag-Pickers of Mumbai”
As the term ‘rag-picker’ sounds very low so does their job. My study includes several visits to the Govandi Dumping Ground, Mumbai, interviewing the women rag-pickers working there, visiting their slums, meeting with the social workers of Street Mukti Sangathan, studying the problems faced by these women and also keeping a track of their progress. I used personal interviewing of women ragpickers, their boss (the person to whom they sold their collected rags), the social workers, who had devoted their entire time working for them and some printed facts, as my research and analytical methodology. I interviewed 20 women ragpickers, from a diverse age group and varied religions. The following are the main outcomes of my study.
Starting with the history of the plights of the women ragpickers, these women came to Mumbai due to droughts in their villages or they were married to men residing in Mumbai. What started of as additional income for the family eventually became the only source of income because 90 % of men stopped working or got into alcohol consumption or left their wives for other younger women. Their day started from as early as 5 am in the morning and went on until it was evening. Their breakfast and lunch were light, comprising of tea and bread or...

...India’s booming urbanization brings the problem of waste management. The amount of waste is increasing at a high pace and waste management is likely to become a critical issue in the coming years.
Ragpickers play an important, but usually unrecognised role in the waste management system of Indian cities. They collect garbage in search of recyclable items that can be sold to scrap merchant (paper, plastic, tin...). This activity require no skills and is a source of income for a growing number of urban poor. There are two types of scrap-collectors: the ragpickers, mostly women, who collect garbage on dumping grounds, in residential areas or in street bins, and the itinerant buyers who purchase scrap directly from households, offices and shops. Most of the itinerant buyers are male and they typically require a certain amount of capital to purchase scrap.
Most of the ragpickers are not independent but work for middlemen or contractors who purchase segregated rag from them on pre-decided rates. Waste picking is rarely recognized or integrated in the official Waste Management System despite its large contribution to it. According to the NGO Chintan, ragpickers “are unrecognized and have almost no rights to work, despite the fact that they save almost 14% of the municipal budget annually.
Mumbai generates waste of approximately 7,025 tonns per day....

...Bengal Legislative Council and inflicted defeats on three ministries. The Calcutta Municipal Act of 1923 was a major landmark in the history of local self-government in India. The Swarajists were elected to the Calcutta Corporation in a majority in 1924. Deshbandhu was elected mayor and Subash Chandra Bose was appointedChief Executive Officer. The leaders of Swaraj Party began to advocate fordominion status to India. Many of the elected deputies soon forgot about obstruction and began cooperating with the government (tariff autonomy bill passed, 1923). In 1924 Gandhi was released from prison due to poor health and was elected President of the Indian National Congress. 1925 saw the first woman becoming the president of Indian National Congress when Sarojini Naidu was elected President for the Kanpur session.
Revolutionary Movement in India during 1920s and 1930s
The revolutionaries in northern India organized under the leadership of the old veterans, Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjee, Chandrashekhar Azad and Sachindranath Sanyal whose ‘Bandi Jiwani’ served as a textbook to the revolutionary movement. They met in Kanpur in October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to organize armed revolution to overthrow colonial rule and establish in its place a Federal Republic of the United States of India.
Gopinath Saha in January 1924 tried to assassinate Charles Tegart, the hated...

...price rates.
5. Another example of Pepsi, when the Pepsi factory was under its setting up process in the Punjab, the farmers of Punjab protested because the Pepsi authority committed to purchase the potatoes of the farmer but later on the reject and told the farmer that there potatoes are not up to their standards which is used in making up wafers chips and they have imported potatoes from the foreign countries.
6. Only 30 % is mandatory to purchase from Small and medium enterprises (SME's). What about rest 70%?
7. The large supermarket will import rest 70% which will increase current account deficit of the India. It will demotivate the small and medium scale industries. Hence it will increase unemployment.
In a developing country like India allowing FDI may help in booming the economy. But, this will only be up to a certain period of time only. Initially, India will get employment but that may also affect the middle class people who are mostly depended on small business. The employment provided by FDI will be of low class like, sweepers, security guards, etc. FDI saying that the farmers will be benefited but, their land used for cultivating the crops by spraying large amount of pesticides will be infected.
Ex. FDI using one farmers land for one year. It will cultivate large amount of crops by using pesticides indirectly affecting the land's quality. After one year that land will be poisoned. Then FDI will shift to...

...December 3, 2011
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Beer in India
Beer first appeared in India in the mid-1700’s, during the early years of the British Empire. The demand of beer came from the British troops and other British officials who were suffering in the blistering heat of the Indian climate. The demand for beer was at such a high rate that a British distributor, George Hogson, developed a special type of beer in his brewery in London, England. The beer was dubbed Indian Pale Ale or IPA for short. IPA was developed to survive those long voyages from England to India without spoiling, because of the increasing temperatures during the 5 moth voyage to India.
In the late 1820’s a brewer, Edward Dyer, moved from England to India to set up India’s first brewery. The brewery was located by the city of Shimla in the Himalaya Mountains. The brewery produced Asia’s first beer called Lion before it was relocated to the town of Solan. The brewery moved for two reason, to be closer to the British and because the new area has an abundance of fresh spring water. The brewery is still operational. After the success of his first brewery, Dyer opened up several other breweries throughout India. Dyer was later brought out by H.G Meakin who adds another couple breweries in India. In 1937 after the detachment of Burma from India, the Dyer Meakin Breweries became a...

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Structure
13.1 . Illtroduction
13.2 Theory of Fseedotn and Self-Realisatiotl
13.3 Emphasis on Human Reason
13.4 Critique of Nationalism
13.5 Differences with Gandlii
'13.6 A ~ ~ a l y sof Bolshevism is 13.7 Summary
13.8 Exercises
Rabindranath 'Tagorc (1861-1941) was an outstanding litcrnry figure of India who exerted consiclerable inf uence on human thinking in the contcml>oraryworld. T l ~ i s influence extcnded to the political arena as well by his lilcid elucidation of inlpartant conccpts like nationalis~m, freedom, human ratiollality and l ~ i s many dil'fcsences with Mahatma Gnntlhi's (1 869-1948) philosopl~y strategies. ancl Wliile Gatidhi was a political and social activist and Tagore was a poet, there was renlarkable consistency in tile enunciation of their ~ilgjorpolitical tlietnes, which they developed and refined reflecting on major cvents OF their time. I~urthermot-c,in Tagore there was a quest of (z poet for hitrnat~perfection and conlplcteness and 1101merely a pragmatic analysis of a particular probleln or a sitnatian, His expression was an elocll~cntappcal of his faith i11 the human spirit and the opti~nislnby which the entire humankind could tliinlicl-~ wanted to be based both he on reason and a concern fbr the masses, He criticised Gandlli whenever he felt that the Mahatma was deviating from these planks. He not only criticised but also provided an alternative perception to that of Gandhi. He acknowledges his...

...The leaders of our freedom movement, under the stewardship of Mahatma Gandhi, had dreamt of an independent and prosperous India. On this day in 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru took the first step towards the realization of that dream by hoisting the Tricolour at the Red Fort. The journey we began on 15 August, 1947 is now 65 years old. We have achieved much in these 65 years.
Today is certainly a day to celebrate the success of our democracy. However, on this occasion we should also introspect about what remains to be done. We would achieve independence in the true sense only when we are able to banish poverty, illiteracy, hunger and backwardness from our country. This would be possible only when we learn from our failures and build on our successes.
You are aware that these days the global economy is passing through a difficult phase. The pace of economic growth has come down in all countries of the world. Seen together, the European countries are estimated to grow at 0 percent this year. Our country has also been affected by these adverse external conditions. Also, there have been domestic developments which are hindering our economic growth. Last year our GDP grew by 6.5 percent. This year we hope to do a little better.
I would like to congratulate our scientists and technologists who have enhanced our prestige by successfully testing the Agni V Missile and launching the RISAT- I Satellite in space this year. Recently the Cabinet has approved the Mars...